...Our Christmas this year was fantastic and will be remembered as one of the best that we have had. Not for the presents that any one person received, but for the quality of time we were able to spend with family. This year we went down to South Florida (Cooper City, FL to be exact) to my husband's parent's house. We arrived on Friday night and spent some time with his parents, and his sister and niece - Lil & Ava. We arrived around 10pm so soon after that we just went to bed.
The next morning (Saturday) we had breakfast and went to the grocery store to get a couple things. Mostly just enjoyed each other's company and hung around the house. Lanie, Jim, and Austin (my sister/brother-in-law and nephew) arrived at 6pm and from there Bradley & Austin were inseperable! They haven't seen eachother since last year and they are close in age (12 & 15). They would play Monopoly on Austin's Kindle Fire and - since Austin has his learner's permit - Lanie would take Austin to practice driving and Brad would tag along. I was able to cook dinner for everyone and we all ate and just talked. Later that evening at 11pm Hans & I went to Walmart because we are crazy to get some last minute items for Brad, Jake, and the "white elephant" gift exchange for the adults. More about that later... :)
The grandkids - Austin (15), Ava (2), Bradley (12), and Jacob (4)
Sunday was a nice, lazy day. We are breakfast, played Catchphrase, Lanie and Hans worked on a puzzle on the back porch, Brad - Austin - and Jake all played together. Lil, Tom, and Ava came later and then we all played with Ava and watched her run around with Jake. It was so fun seeing Ava and Jake play together... and they played together so well! She is 2 and Jake is 4 so again, they are close in age like Brad & Austin are. It works out very well. Later we had burgers for lunch & pizza for dinner. Wait... what was I doing most of the day, you ask? I was laying on the couch watching movies. Yep. I was relaxing! Later on, their cousins (and my cousin in laws...?) Brent and his wife Dely came over with their kids, Dani & Brandon. We were able to get some great photos and again, the more the merrier. We had a great time with them.
(Jake, Ava, and Brandon on the piano)
(Front row: Dani, Ava, Brandon, Jake -- Back row: Lanie, Austin, Brent, Hans, Brad, and Lil)
That evening - Hans and I realized we still had to wrap every present we had bought all through the year! Yes, we went to South Florida with our presents unwrapped, in boxes. All of them. So we spent the next hour or two wrapping lots and lots of small and large presents for the kids, from Brad and Jake to Ava and Austin. Finally, around midnight, we went to bed.
(Brad playing Catchphrase)
Monday (Christmas Eve) was very pleasant. Cooking began very early in the morning for our Christmas Eve meal. In between all the cooking, we went over to Potential Church where my in-laws attend and enjoyed their Christmas Eve Candlelight Service and sermon. Pastor Troy Gramling is a good speaker.
We ate dinner later that evening. It was incredible. We had roast turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, dinner rolls, olives, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy made from scratch... My mother-in-law is a great cook! After dinner and cleaning up - the games began. Ava and Jake played together while the rest of us (adults and teens) played the games for our Christmas Eve celebration! This has begun a new tradition in the Reller/Krasnor/Sheets Christmases for sure.
To start: We played a scavenger hunt that Lil made up. It all took place in the back yard. We were put on separate teams ("Team Frosty" and "Team Prancer") and then beginning with one clue we had to find the next clue and so on... until we got to clue ten where the winner was chosen. I was on "Team Frosty" and we won... YAY! :)
The next game we played was "Minute to Win It" - Christmas style. These were the games that my mother & father-in-law thought of. We had to hang ornaments on a yard stick suspended on an empty paper towel roll. The one with the most on there in a minute wins. Well, my mother & father-in-law dominated and won! After that, we had to take metal hardware nuts on a candy cane and stack them from the candy cane onto a table, one on top of the other. Jim won this round as he was able to get all ten stacked in no time, while the rest of us did six, seven, or they would topple over.
(Geoff & Gail win it all!!)
(Clockwise from left: Lanie, Hans, Austin, Gail, Brad, and Tom)
The next morning, Brad was up at 7am. Jacob and Austin wanted to sleep longer so they slept until Ava got there (with Lil & Tom) at 8am. From that point, it was eating breakfast, drinking coffee, and watching the kids open gift after gift. They are so blessed and they had so much fun! Ava received a "Doc McStuffins" doctor set and she kept walking around and giving her mom Lil a pretend bandaid. Jake got an Iron Man dress up costume and so he was walking around most of the day dressed up as Iron Man. Austin's big gift was an iPod Nano and a gaming chair, so he and Brad (who also got a gaming chair) were sitting next to eachother, in the chairs, streaming Coldplay over the speakers in the chairs. It was a lot of fun being around everyone and again - very memorable.
We left at 2pm that afternoon and arrived home at 6pm. The rest of the night was unpacking, cleaning, laundry, and trying to relax a little in between as the hubby and I both had work early the next morning.
Here are some more pictures from Christmas... enjoy!
